V. I. Lenin

============================================================


----------------------------------------

GNU Free Documentation License
Version 1.2, November 2002
Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002  Free Software Foundation, Inc.

59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies

of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
Text Version
MIA no longer uses this license.
All works that we had listed under the FDL are now licensed under the
Creative Commons License
. Sorry for the delay in updating all our links to this new license.
Simplified overview of this license:
anyone can copy and redistribute this information however they want, and the right to do that can't be taken away, regardless of who publishes it or how. This license ensures that if someone copies or republishes this information, they must credit the source (e.g. the Marxists Internet Archive, with a url to the information) and make it clear that the information is protected under the full terms of the GNU FDL. This license also talks about making modifications, which isn't appropriate for our archival texts but is for the Encyclopedia. In any event, modifications to any materials must be clearly demarcated from the original source material derived from the Marxists Internet Archive. Please note that the material below covering Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts is not relevant to MIA.
0. PREAMBLE
The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other

functional and useful document "free" in the sense of freedom: to

assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it,

with or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially.

Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way

to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible

for modifications made by others.
This License is a kind of "copyleft", which means that derivative

works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense.  It

complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft

license designed for free software.
We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free

software, because free software needs free documentation: a free

program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the

software does.  But this License is not limited to software manuals;

it can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or

whether it is published as a printed book.  We recommend this License

principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference.
1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS
This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that

contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be

distributed under the terms of this License.  Such a notice grants a

world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use that

work under the conditions stated herein.  The "Document", below,

refers to any such manual or work.  Any member of the public is a

licensee, and is addressed as "you".  You accept the license if you

copy, modify or distribute the work in a way requiring permission

under copyright law.
A "Modified Version" of the Document means any work containing the

Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with

modifications and/or translated into another language.
A "Secondary Section" is a named appendix or a front-matter section of

the Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the

publishers or authors of the Document to the Document's overall subject

(or to related matters) and contains nothing that could fall directly

within that overall subject.  (Thus, if the Document is in part a

textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not explain any

mathematics.)  The relationship could be a matter of historical

connection with the subject or with related matters, or of legal,

commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position regarding

them.
The "Invariant Sections" are certain Secondary Sections whose titles

are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice

that says that the Document is released under this License.  If a

section does not fit the above definition of Secondary then it is not

allowed to be designated as Invariant.  The Document may contain zero

Invariant Sections.  If the Document does not identify any Invariant

Sections then there are none.
The "Cover Texts" are certain short passages of text that are listed,

as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that

the Document is released under this License.  A Front-Cover Text may

be at most 5 words, and a Back-Cover Text may be at most 25 words.
A "Transparent" copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy,

represented in a format whose specification is available to the

general public, that is suitable for revising the document

straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed of

pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely available

drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters or

for automatic translation to a variety of formats suitable for input

to text formatters.  A copy made in an otherwise Transparent file

format whose markup, or absence of markup, has been arranged to thwart

or discourage subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent.

An image format is not Transparent if used for any substantial amount

of text.  A copy that is not "Transparent" is called "Opaque".
Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain

ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format, SGML

or XML using a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming simple

HTML, PostScript or PDF designed for human modification.  Examples of

transparent image formats include PNG, XCF and JPG.  Opaque formats

include proprietary formats that can be read and edited only by

proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or

processing tools are not generally available, and the

machine-generated HTML, PostScript or PDF produced by some word

processors for output purposes only.
The "Title Page" means, for a printed book, the title page itself,

plus such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material

this License requires to appear in the title page.  For works in

formats which do not have any title page as such, "Title Page" means

the text near the most prominent appearance of the work's title,

preceding the beginning of the body of the text.
A section "Entitled XYZ" means a named subunit of the Document whose

title either is precisely XYZ or contains XYZ in parentheses following

text that translates XYZ in another language.  (Here XYZ stands for a

specific section name mentioned below, such as "Acknowledgements",

"Dedications", "Endorsements", or "History".)  To "Preserve the Title"

of such a section when you modify the Document means that it remains a

section "Entitled XYZ" according to this definition.
The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which

states that this License applies to the Document.  These Warranty

Disclaimers are considered to be included by reference in this

License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other

implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and has

no effect on the meaning of this License.
2. VERBATIM COPYING
You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either

commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the

copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies

to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other

conditions whatsoever to those of this License.  You may not use

technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further

copying of the copies you make or distribute.  However, you may accept

compensation in exchange for copies.  If you distribute a large enough

number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3.
You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and

you may publicly display copies.
3. COPYING IN QUANTITY
If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly have

printed covers) of the Document, numbering more than 100, and the

Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose the

copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover

Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on

the back cover.  Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify

you as the publisher of these copies.  The front cover must present

the full title with all words of the title equally prominent and

visible.  You may add other material on the covers in addition.

Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve

the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated

as verbatim copying in other respects.
If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit

legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit

reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent

pages.
If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering

more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent

copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy

a computer-network location from which the general network-using

public has access to download using public-standard network protocols

a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material.

If you use the latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps,

when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure

that this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated

location until at least one year after the last time you distribute an

Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that

edition to the public.
It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the

Document well before redistributing any large number of copies, to give

them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the Document.
4. MODIFICATIONS
You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under

the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release

the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the Modified

Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution

and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy

of it.  In addition, you must do these things in the Modified Version:
A.
Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct

   from that of the Document, and from those of previous versions

   (which should, if there were any, be listed in the History section

   of the Document).  You may use the same title as a previous version

   if the original publisher of that version gives permission.
B.
List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities

   responsible for authorship of the modifications in the Modified

   Version, together with at least five of the principal authors of the

   Document (all of its principal authors, if it has fewer than five),

   unless they release you from this requirement [The transcribers of a document do not have to be listed on the title page, but somewhere in the publication].
C.
State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the

   Modified Version, as the publisher.
D.
Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
E.
Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications

   adjacent to the other copyright notices.
F.
Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice

   giving the public permission to use the Modified Version under the

   terms of this License, in the form shown in the Addendum below.
G.
Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections

   and required Cover Texts given in the Document's license notice.
H.
Include an
unaltered copy of this License
.
I.
Preserve the
section Entitled "History"
, Preserve its Title, and add

   to it an item stating at least the title, year, new authors, and

   publisher of the Modified Version as given on the Title Page.  If

   there is no section Entitled "History" in the Document, create one

   stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document as

   given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified

   Version as stated in the previous sentence. [this is only relevant if you are creating a mirror of MIA, or copying a bulk of MIA material]
J.
Preserve the network location [consisting of at least: http://www.marxists.org/], if any, given in the Document for

   public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise

   the network locations given in the Document for previous versions

   it was based on.  These may be placed in the "History" section.

   You may omit a network location for a work that was published at

   least four years before the Document itself, or if the original

   publisher of the version it refers to gives permission.
K.
For any section Entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications" [See the
Volunteers
and the
Steering Committee
],

   Preserve the Title of the section, and preserve in the section all

   the substance and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgements

   and/or dedications given therein. [this is only relevant if you are creating a mirror of MIA, or copying a bulk of MIA material; again however the transcriber and html markup done by a volunteer of specific documents you use
must
be included in your publication.]
L.
Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document,

   unaltered in their text and in their titles.  Section numbers

   or the equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.
M.
Delete any section Entitled "Endorsements".  Such a section

   may not be included in the Modified Version.
N.
Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled "Endorsements"

   or to conflict in title with any Invariant Section.
O.
Preserve any
Warranty Disclaimers
. [this is only relevant if you are creating a mirror of MIA, or copying a bulk of MIA material]
If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or

appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material

copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some or all

of these sections as invariant.  To do this, add their titles to the

list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's license notice.

These titles must be distinct from any other section titles.
You may add a section Entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains

nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various

parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the text has

been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a

standard.
You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a

passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list

of Cover Texts in the Modified Version.  Only one passage of

Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or

through arrangements made by) any one entity.  If the Document already

includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or

by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of,

you may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit

permission from the previous publisher that added the old one.
The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License

give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or

imply endorsement of any Modified Version.
5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
You may combine the Document with other documents released under this

License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified

versions, provided that you include in the combination all of the

Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and

list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its

license notice, and that you preserve all their Warranty Disclaimers.
The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and

multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single

copy.  If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but

different contents, make the title of each such section unique by

adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original

author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number.

Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of

Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work.
In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled "History"

in the various original documents, forming one section Entitled

"History"; likewise combine any sections Entitled "Acknowledgements",

and any sections Entitled "Dedications".  You must delete all sections

Entitled "Endorsements."
6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents

released under this License, and replace the individual copies of this

License in the various documents with a single copy that is included in

the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for

verbatim copying of each of the documents in all other respects.
You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute

it individually under this License, provided you insert a copy of this

License into the extracted document, and follow this License in all

other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document.
7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate

and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or

distribution medium, is called an "aggregate" if the copyright

resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the legal rights

of the compilation's users beyond what the individual works permit.

When the Document is included an aggregate, this License does not

apply to the other works in the aggregate which are not themselves

derivative works of the Document.
If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these

copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one half of

the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed on

covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the

electronic equivalent of covers if the Document is in electronic form.

Otherwise they must appear on printed covers that bracket the whole

aggregate.
8. TRANSLATION
Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may

distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4.

Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special

permission from their copyright holders, but you may include

translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the

original versions of these Invariant Sections.  You may include a

translation of this License, and all the license notices in the

Document, and any Warrany Disclaimers, provided that you also include

the original English version of this License and the original versions

of those notices and disclaimers.  In case of a disagreement between

the translation and the original version of this License or a notice

or disclaimer, the original version will prevail.
If a section in the Document is Entitled "Acknowledgements",

"Dedications", or "History", the requirement (section 4) to Preserve

its Title (section 1) will typically require changing the actual

title.
9. TERMINATION
You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except

as expressly provided for under this License.  Any other attempt to

copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Document is void, and will

automatically terminate your rights under this License.  However,

parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this

License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such

parties remain in full compliance.
10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions

of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time.  Such new

versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may

differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.  See
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/
.
Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number.

If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this

License "or any later version" applies to it, you have the option of

following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or

of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the

Free Software Foundation.  If the Document does not specify a version

number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not

as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.
How to use this License for your documents
To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of

the License in the document and put the following copyright and

license notices just after the title page:
Copyright (c)  YEAR  YOUR NAME.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document

      under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2

      or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;

      with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

      A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU

      Free Documentation License".
If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts,

replace the "with...Texts." line with this:
with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES, with the

    Front-Cover Texts being LIST, and with the Back-Cover Texts being LIST.
If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other

combination of the three, merge those two alternatives to suit the

situation.
If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we

recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of

free software license, such as the GNU General Public License,

to permit their use in free software.
Contact the
Marxists Internet Archive Admin Committee
for further information

----------------------------------------

MIA:
V.I. Lenin Internet Archive:
Works Index
Collected Works
The Collected Works of Vladimir Lenin, as published by Progress
	      Publishers (and Foreign Languages Press) in the U.S.S.R.
These volumes are in progress and need to be completed:
,
.
• A specific to-do list of remaining work
		on the CW is available
here
.
•
	    To help out, contact the
LIA Director>
. 

	      (Spanish is next!)
Selected Works
A list of Lenin’s writings selected by the Editors of the
	      V.I. Lenin Internet Archive for their political influence and
	      significance, historical value and reflection of Lenin’s
	      beliefs.
Year Index
Partial list of texts arranged by year.  Refer to
	      collected works index for a list of completed volumes.
All Works—By Title
This is a “quick reference” guide with
4,170
of a potential
4,500
documents

	      listed in one long file (160k) and organized
	      alphabetically by title only. It is presented in a very
	      simple
list
format.
[This a work in progress and not fully completed yet]
All Works—By Date
This is a “quick reference” guide with
4,170
of a potential
4,500
documents

	      listed in one long file (160k) and organized by date. It
	      is  presented in a very simple
list
format.
[This a work in progress and not fully completed yet]
Lenin Subject Index
Various key works of Lenin arranged by subject
	      [Always under construction!]
Lenin Quotes
Quotes from Lenin, linked to the context from which the 
		quote is taken — the only authentic, sourced list of Lenin quotes on the 
		internet.
* * *
A Note on
		  “Notes” and 
		  Other Issues
Concerning
Lenin Collected Works
* * *
Lenin Internet Archive
|
Marxists Internet 
	      Archive
Director of Lenin Internet Archive:
D. Walters

----------------------------------------

MIA
:
Marxist Writers
: Lenin
Text Index
|
MIA Index
Free
eBooks for Lenin
Lenin in other languages

----------------------------------------

V. I. Lenin
To the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P.
Written:
Written on or about May 2, 1910
Published:
First published in 1933 in
Lenin Miscellany XXV
.

      Mailed from Paris to Russia.

      Signed:
Members of the Editorial Board of the Central Organ Lenin and others
.

      Published according to the manuscript.
Source:
Lenin
	  Collected Works
,

      Progress Publishers,
,

      Moscow,
Volume 16
,

      pages
191-194
.
Translated:
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Copyleft:
V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marxists.org)
      © 2004

      Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the
      terms of the
GNU Free Documentation License
.
Dear
Comrades,
We
consider it our duty to inform you that it is our deep and firm
conviction that the state of affairs in the editorial board of the Central
Organ has become absolutely intolerable and that it is quite
impossible
for us to carry out the Party line unless the board’s
composition is changed.
Only
the first two meetings of the editorial board since the plenum
afforded us any hope of the possibility of joint work with Comrades Martov
and Dan. Comrade Martov’s agreement with the Central Committee’s letter on
the Conference (see No. 11 of the Central Organ. Martov
signed
this letter) certainly testified to his endeavour
loyally
to carry
out the decisions of the plenum. A different tone was earliest of all
adopted by Comrade Dan, who declared the leading article of the Central
Organ

				No. 11
{1}
harmful
and in our presence accused Martov of
opportunism like
that of the Central Organ
. It has already become clear to us from this
that the out-and-out Golosists consider Martov an “opportunist” in the
sense of being ready to comply with the decisions of the Party, and the
whole question reduces itself to whether Martov will surrender to their
attack.
Martov’s
article “On the Right Path” has shown that the answer is
yes. His refusal to insert it in
Diskussionny Listok
(although it
obviously
discusses
the Central Committee’s decision on the
composition of the Central Organ) is evidence of the outbreak of
hostilities. On the question of the relation of illegal organisations and
those active in them to legal ones, Martov in this article
has
obviously gone over from the Central Committee
(the letter on the
Conference
which Martov signed)
to Dan
. “The theory of equality” of
illegalists and legalists denotes a
departure from the Central
Committee’s letter, a turn on the part of Martov
, for the
contradiction between this “theory” and the Central Committee’s letter is
evident to anyone who does not want to close his eyes to it.
When,
after the rejection of his article (he refused its publication as
a comment, and in
Diskussionny Listok
as well), Martov announced
in the editorial board of the Central Organ
the outbreak of hostilities
by him
, his position and that of Dan became quite clear to us.
It
was definitely made clear to the Party by:

1) the behaviour of Mikhail, Roman and Yuri;

2) the manifesto of the sixteen Russian Mensheviks;

3)
Golos
No. 19–2O; and

4) the splitting manifesto of the four editors of
Golos
. To this
has now been added

5) the openly liquidationist statement of Potresov in
Nasha

Zarya
{4}
No. 2, where he writes along with Martov and others, and

6) the statement of the editors of
Golos Sotsial-Demokrata
against
Plekhanov (“A Necessary Supplement to
Dnevnik
”
{5}
), where, side by side with the same Potresov,
Martynov, Martov and Axelrod treat the Central Organ of the Party and
pro-Party Menshevisn
en canaille
.
In
our leaflet “
Golos (Voice
) of the Liquidators Against the
Party” and in No. 12 of the Central Organ we gave an appraisal of the
first four

			     statements.
{2}
In No. 13 of the Central Organ, which will be out next week, Plekhanov
gives his appraisal of Potresov’s article in
Nasha Zarya
.
As
shown already by the four resolutions of the
Menshevik
groups and parts of the
Menshevik
groups abroad (Paris, Nice, San
Remo,

			       Geneva
{3}
),

the pro-Party Mensheviks are beginning to unite and come out against
Golos Sotsial Demokrata
, which has definitely gone over to the
liquidators. The
pro-Party
Mensheviks openly oppose
Golos
and the Russian liquidators openly admit
Golos’s
turn to
liquidationism
after
the plenum.
The
result is that the situation in the Party has altered considerably
from that obtaining at the time of the plenum
and hence absolutely requires changes in the composition of the Central
Organ. The plenum wanted to give the possibility of returning to the Party
and working loyally in the Party to
all
Golosists,
all
Social-Democrats,
all
legal participants in the workers’ movement
desiring
to come over to the pro-Party position. It was counting
not on a split between J the two sections of Menshevism but on a general
passage of
both
sections to the pro-Party position.
The
blame rests with the Russian centre of the legalists (Potresov,
Mikhail and Co.) and with
Golos Sotsial-Demokrata
that things
turned out otherwise. Their split with the
pro-Party
Mensheviks
became a fact. Around the Central Organ and
Diskussionny Listok
we
united a number of
pro-Party
Mensheviks (Plekhanov, Rappoport,
Avdeyev), with whom we were fully able to arrange Party work devoid of any
kind of factionalism, despite all our differences of opinion. Steps are
being taken abroad to unite the Bolshevik groups and the pro-Party
Mensheviks. The
Golos
groups, on the other hand, have definitely
taken a course
against
union.
Consequently,
it is not for accidental or personal reasons that an
absolutely impossible situation has been created within the editorial board
of the Central Organ. If a state of continual squabbling, from which there
is no way out, prevails on our editorial board, if we three are definitely
powerless to overcome the hostile attitude of the two other editors, if all
work in the Central Organ is held up, it is the inevitable result of the
false position
. In accordance with the plenum decisions,
rapprochement with the
pro-Party
Mensheviks is essential, but in
our Central Organ the
anti-Party
Mensheviks wage a relentless
struggle against the
pro-Party Mensheviks
who are outside the
Central Organ and helping it!
We
are fully confident that the comrades in the Central Committee will
realise the absolute impossibility of this situation and will not demand
that we exemplify it by recounting the innumerable conflicts and rows in
the editorial board. These conflicts, accusations and frictions, the total
disruption of the work, are simply the result of the changed political
situation, which is
inevitably
bound to lead to the disintegration
of the Central Organ if the step
dictated by the
whole
spirit of the plenum decisions is not taken,
viz., the replacement of the anti-Party, liquidationist, Golosist
Mensheviks by pro-Party Mensheviks, whose entry into the Party and its
leading bodies we are
obliged
to assist.
In
the Central Committee Bureau Abroad the pro-Party Mensheviks have
already announced their desire to have their representatives, i.e.,
supporters of
pro-Party
Menshevism, on the editorial board of the
Central Organ (and in the Central Committee Bureau Abroad).
We
for our part declare that we are
definitely not in a
position
to conduct the Party Organ in collaboration with the
Golosists, for it is impossible to carry out work exclusively by means of a
mechanical majority over people with whom we have no common Party ground.
We
hope that the Central Committee will take the necessary
organisational steps to change the composition of the editorial board of
the Central Organ and to set up a
pro-Party
collegium that is
capable of functioning.
Notes
{1}
See pp. 147-55 of this volume.—
Ed
.
{2}
See pp. 156–64 of this volume.—
Ed
.
{3}
See pp. 185–88 of this volume.—
Ed
.
{4}
Nasha Zarya
(
Our Dawn
)—a legal monthly journal of
the Menshevik liquidators published, in St. Petersburg from 1910 to
1914. It served as a rallying centre for the liquidators in Russia.
{5}
A Necessary Supplement to C. V. Plekhanov’s
“Dnevnik
”—a Menshevik liquidationist leaflet issued by the
editors of
Color Sotsial Demokrata
in April 1910, directed against
G. V. Plekhanov.
Works
		  Index
|
Volume 16
|
Collected Works
|
L.I.A. Index
<
		  backward
forward >

----------------------------------------

V. I. Lenin
The Jubilee Number of
Zihna
{1}
Published:
Printed in July 1910, in the newspaper
Zihna
No. 100.

      Translated from the Lettish.

      Signed:
N. Lenin
.

      Published according to the text in the newspaper.
Source:
Lenin
	  Collected Works
,

      Progress Publishers,
,

      Moscow,
Volume 16
,

      pages
260-264
.
Translated:
Transcription\Markup:
R. Cymbala
Copyleft:
V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marxists.org)
      © 2004

      Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the
      terms of the
GNU Free Documentation License
.
When
the comrade delegated by the Central Committee of the
Social-Democratic Party of the Lettish Region made a report on the status
of work in the Social-Democratic Party of the Lettish Region at the plenary
meeting of the Central Committee of the R.S.D.L.P. (this report was
summarised in No. 12 of our Party’s Central Organ), we were left with the
impression of an unusually “normal” and painless development of the
Lettish Social-Democratic movement during the difficult times through which
we are passing. What created this impression was that the,
Social-Democratic Party of the Lettish Region, being the most proletarian
in composition and with a mainly working-class leadership, has already, in
accordance with the demands of objective circumstances, proceeded to work
out special tactics and solve the organisational problems of this
protracted period of counter-revolution. During the revolution the Lettish
proletariat and the Lettish Social-Democratic Party occupied one of the
first and most prominent places in the struggle against the autocracy and
all the forces of the old order. Incidentally, it is not without interest
to note that the official strike statistics of 1905 (published by the
Ministry of Trade and

Industry)
{2}
show that Livonian Gubernia takes first place for the
persistence of the proletarian strike movement. In 1905 the number of
factory workers in Livonian Gubernia totalled 53,917, while the number of
strikers was 268,507, i.e., almost five times (4.38) as many! In that year
every worker in Livonian Gubernia went on strike on the average
5 times. Next after Livonian Gubernia comes Baku Gubernia, where each
factory worker struck 4.56 times, Tiflis Gubernia—4.49 times, Petrokov
Gubernia—4.98 times and St. Petersburg—4.19. In Moscow Gubernia in 1905
the number of workers on strike came to 276,563, i.e., only a few more than
in Livonian Gubernia, although the total number of factory workers in
Moscow Gubernia is five times as large as in Livonian Gubernia (285,769
against 53,917). We see from this how much more class-conscious, unanimous
and revolutionary the Lettish proletariat was in its activity. But we also
know that its role of vanguard in the offensive against absolutism was not
limited to strike action: it was in the van of the armed uprising, it
contributed most of all to raising the movement to the highest level, i.e.,
the level of an up rising. It succeeded more than any other in drawing the
Lettish agricultural proletariat and the Lettish peasantry into the great
revolutionary struggle against tsarism and the landlords.
Besides
being one of the leading contingents of Russian
Social-Democracy during the revolution, the Lettish workers’ party has
proved to be in the front ranks too during the difficult period of
counter-revolution. We learned from the report mentioned above that no
special trend has arisen among the Lettish Social-Democrats either of an
infatuation for revolutionary phrases (like our “otzovists”) or of an
infatuation for legal opportunities (like our
liquidators
, who
reject the illegal Party and stand aside from the task of restoring and
strengthening the R.S.D.L.P.). The Lettish Social-Democratic workers have
succeeded in setting about the work of utilising all kinds of legal
avenues: the legal unions, various workingmen’s associations, the Duma
tribune, etc. Moreover they have not in the least “liquidated” the
illegal, revolutionary Social-Democratic Party; on the contrary, they have
everywhere preserved the workers’ illegal Party units, which will uphold
and continue the traditions of the great revolutionary struggle, training
by steady and persistent effort increasingly numerous and class-conscious
masses of combatants drawn from the young generations of the working class.
There
is no doubt that among the causes to which the success of the
Lettish Social-Democrats is due we must assign the foremost place to the
higher development of capitalism, both in town and countryside, the greater
clarity
and definiteness of the class contradictions, their aggravation by national
oppression, the concentration of the Lettish population and its superior
cultural development. In all these respects the situation in which the
Russian working class has to develop and operate is much less developed. It
is this underdevelopment that is now engendering a more acute crisis in the
Russian section of the R.S.D.L.P. The petty-bourgeois intellectuals in our
movement play a big role. They bring liabilities as well as assets: they
bring not only the elaboration of questions of theory and tactics but an
“elaboration” of every deviation from the Social-Democratic path into a
distinct “trend”, as, for example, “otzovism” and “liquidationism”.
We
venture to express the hope that the Lettish Social-Democrats, who
have every reason to be proud of their successes, will not consider these
vexed questions of the R.S.D.L.P. beneath their dignity.
The
more class-conscious the proletariat, the more clearly does it
visualise its Social-Democratic aims, the more vigorously does it fight
against all petty-bourgeois distortions in the workers’ movement, the more
is it concerned to free its less developed working-class comrades from the
influence of petty-bourgeois opportunism.
The
liquidationist trend in the R.S.D.L.P. is a product of the
petty-bourgeois relations in Russia. The whole liberal bourgeoisie takes
its stand against the revolution, repudiates it, anathematises the tactics
of 1905, which, it says, were “bloody and abortive”, grovels before the
powers that be, exhorts the people to confine themselves to
legal
methods of struggle. And the petty-bourgeois intellectuals in our Party
succumb to the influence of counter-revolutionary liberalism. A history of
the revolution has been published in five volumes (
The Social Movement
in Russia at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century
, edited by Maslov,
Martov and Potresov). This history in effect propagates the doctrine of the
renegades, that the proletariat “over estimated” its strength and
“underestimated” the strength of the bourgeoisie, and so forth. Actually
what the masses of the proletariat did underestimate was the treachery of
the bourgeoisie; they overestimated the strength of the bourgeoisie in the
fight for freedom, and underestimated
their own forces—the force of the offensive of the oppressed and
exploited millions.
Legal
journals are being published (
Nasha Zarya
and
Vozrozhdeniye
) which preach the doctrine that to restore and
strengthen the illegal Party, our old R..S.D.L.P. that has stood the test
of years, is a “reactionary utopia”. The illegal Menshevik organ
—Golos Sotsial-Demokrata
—comes out in defence of such
gentlemen and proclaims the slogan:

“Fight for legality.” One of the most prominent leaders of Menshevism,
Plekhanov, leaves the editorial board and staff of contributors of all
these publications, declaring war on them and appealing to the
Mensheviks—
the pro-Party Mensheviks
—to support and strengthen
the revolutionary, illegal party of the proletariat—the R.S.D.L.P.
Thus
our Party has begun a decisive fight against groups of independent
legalists who wrongly call themselves Social-Democrats. In reality they are
wrecking the cause of the Social-Democrats, they are destroying the
Social-Democratic organisation of the working class, changing it into
amorphous legal groups which have no principles and which are in fact
making the working class dependent on the ideology of the liberals and on
liberal political leadership.
About
ten years ago our Party carried through a struggle against
so-called Economism, which was very much akin to the liquidationism of
today. Now the struggle is more difficult, since all the forces of the
counter-revolution—not only of the old but also of the new (modern),
liberal-bourgeois counter-revolution—are bent on doing away with the
traditions of 1905 among the proletariat and destroying its illegal
Social-Democratic Party. But the working class, which knew how to lead the
Revolution of 1905, will undoubtedly overcome all these deviations from the
Social-Democratic path.
Before
the Revolution of 1905 the Social-Democrats worked for twenty
years in totally illegal circles and built up a party which is leading
millions towards the overthrow of the autocracy. Now, after the revolution
we can—and, consequently, we must—not only continue the work of the
illegal Party units, but increase this work tenfold, surround the Party
units with a dense network of legal
organisations, utilise the tribune of the black-reactionary Duma for our
agitation, instil among the mass of the workers the lessons learned in the
revolutionary struggle, and create a Social-Democratic Party which will
lead tens of millions of people to a new onslaught against the autocracy.
Notes
{1}
Zihna
(
Struggle
)—a newspaper, the Central Organ of
the Lettish Social-Democrats, founded in March 1904. It was issued at
considerable intervals in Riga, Brussels and Petrograd; from 1919 it was
the organ of the Communist Party of Latvia.
{2}
This refers to the works of V. Y. Varzar,
Statistics of Strikes at
Factories During 1905
and
Statistics of Strikes at Factories
During the Three Years 1906–08
, published in St. Petersburg by the
Ministry of Trade and Industry, 1908 and 1910.
Works
		  Index
|
Volume 16
|
Collected Works
|
L.I.A. Index
<
		  backward
forward >

----------------------------------------
